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BEIJING — McDonald’s and KFC in China faced a new food-safety scare yesterday after a Shanghai
television station reported a supplier sold them expired beef and chicken.

The companies said they immediately stopped using meat from the supplier, Husi Food Co. Ltd. The
Shanghai office of China’s food and drug agency said it was investigating.

Dragon TV said Sunday that Husi, owned by OSI Group of Aurora, Ill., repackaged old beef and
chicken and put new expiration dates on them. It said they were sold to McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza
Hut restaurants.

McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, said they were
conducting their own investigations.

“Food safety is a top priority for McDonald’s,” the company said on its microblog account. The
company said it pursues “strict compliance” with consumer-safety laws and regulations and has “zero
tolerance for illegal behavior.”

The Shanghai office of the State Food and Drug Administration said it was working with police to
investigate Husi.

“At present, the company has been sealed and suspect products seized,” the agency said on its
website.

McDonald’s sealed 4,500 cases of beef, pork, chicken and other products supplied by Husi for
investigation and Pizza Hut sealed 500 cases of seasoned beef, the city government said in a
statement.

A woman who answered the phone at Husi’s headquarters said no one was available to comment. The
official Xinhua News Agency cited a company manager, Yang Liqun, who said Husi has a strict
quality-control system and will cooperate in the investigation.

The Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, Han Zheng, called for “severe punishment” of any
wrongdoing, according to the city government statement.

McDonald’s, based in Oak Brook, Ill., said it was suspending the distribution and sale of
products from the plant in question.

“If confirmed, the practices outlined in the report are completely unacceptable to McDonald’s,”
the company said in a statement.

Yum’s KFC is China’s biggest restaurant chain, with more than 4,000 outlets and plans to open
700 more this year.